Safe and Sound
by atyinso
Summary: Mercy puts herself in unneeded danger, and Pharah pays the price.


"I keep telling you, I'm fine. Stop worrying, liebchen."

Her lover frowned, clearly not buying her act. Mercy expected this. Not only was she a terrible liar, Pharah was also trained to detect lies. Honestly, she didn't know why she even tried to lie to her in the first place.

Pharah shook her head aggressively, irritation beginning to show in her behavior. "No, you're not. You keep telling yourself you're fine and look at what that's caused!" She gestured to Mercy's right arm, or where it used to be.

The older woman winced at the loud tone, causing the Egyptian to feel guilty about raising her voice. "Angela," she started, "I care about you. I want you to be safe and healthy. I'm sorry for yelling, but I can't stand seeing you in so much pain. You can't keep doing this to yourself. If I could, I'd trade places with you so you wouldn't have to deal with this."

Mercy smiled sadly, and moved to stroke Pharah's cheek, only to reminded with a sharp pain that her primary arm was gone. A small pause passed before she used her left arm instead.

"You are so sweet, my dear Fareeha, but you know I must continue doing my work." She moved in to kiss her on the cheek, but the taller woman placed a shaky finger on the blonde's lips. Mercy pulled away, raising an eyebrow at her. "What's wrong?"

The only thing worse than seeing Pharah distressed was seeing her cry. Angela watched as she broke down in her arms—er, arm—and couldn't help but feel extremely guilty.

"D-Damn it, Angela! Wh-Why are you like this?!" She was choking on her sobs and breathing erratically. Mercy wrapped her only arm around Pharah, wishing she hadn't lost her other one just so she could envelop the soldier in a hug.

"Y-You sacrifice so much for others," she continued after catching her breath. "When will you start looking out for yourself?!"

Mercy took this as an opportunity to try and calm down Pharah. "I don't need to because you're always watching over me," she murmured, burying her face in the crook of Pharah's neck. It was cheesy, but Mercy was always a sucked for cheesy lines. That's one of the reasons she fell in love with Pharah.

Unfortunately, her plan backfired instead. Pharah got even more hysterical, and Mercy felt like her heart was going to tear into two. "I do and you know that, but look at what happened! I can't stop diseases, Angela! Even you're not immune to sickness, but you still put yourself in danger everyday!"

Mercy frowned. "We all do, Fareeha. It's inevitable in our professions."

Pharah shook her head harshly. "No," she whispered hoarsely. "It's different for us. You could have prevented this if you took the time to step back and make sure that you were okay."

Mercy was beginning to get annoyed and defensive. "I thought it was just a cold. How was I supposed to know I would lose my arm?!"

"If you didn't neglect your own health and took care of yourself, you wouldn't have to even ask that question." Pharah pinched the bridge of her nose, exasperated. She couldn't even produce any more tears at this point. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and pulled it out, looking at the screen. She frowned.

"I need to go now. We're moving out in an hour to attack Talon and I have to help prepare the troops for battle."

"Oh."

The two just wordlessly stared at each other for a good minute before Pharah abruptly turned on her heel to leave, muttering something about wasting time. Probably scolding herself for staying so long.

Neither of them bothered to say goodbye when she left the room.

Mercy watched the door close with a click and listened to the sound of footsteps fading away until they were silence.

Then she was alone.

She curled up in a fetal position and buried her face in her knees.

Her and her stupid pride.

Pharah was right. She was right about everything but Mercy was too proud to accept that she was at fault. Pharah just wanted the best for Mercy but she pushed her away. Now she was too sick to accompany them when they needed her the most.

All she could do now was wait impatiently and hope that Pharah and the others would return safely from the mission.

She couldn't lose another loved one. She couldn't lose Pharah. No, not like this.

A week later when they returned, she rushed to the entrance of the base with the rest of Overwatch to greet the survivors. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd, her heart pounding in her ears as she anxiously watched them get off the ship in a single file line.

Her eyes searched and searched but eventually, she had to come to terms with reality.

Pharah wasn't among them, and it was all her fault.


End file.
